James Madison Bowler explains his motivation for enlisting to his sweetheart, Elizabeth Calef (April 27, 1861)

My Dear Lizzie:

. Though I promised you that I should try to keep from doing anything to make you feel bad, yet I have volunteered my services to my country as a private in the ranks of the Min. Volunteer Militia. So many of my friends are going and the cause is so just, that I cannot resist going with them and for the cause . I deplore the condition of our country that calls upon us to fight for it. But somebody must go; and who can go better than young men like myself, without business and with family to demand my attention. The heart which prompted the words, Go, if you think it your duty, has increased claims to my confidence and my love. I have thought of those words a thousand times since you spoke them.